Nixon ordered count of Jewish officials—‘Washington Post’

Press, 12 September 1988, Page 8

Nixon ordered count of Jewish officials— ‘Washington Post’

NZPA-Reuter Washington A senior Republican Party official recently appointed to his post by George Bush once compiled figures on the number of Jews working in a Government agency on the order of the thenPresident, Richard Nixon, the “Washington Post” reported yesterday.

The “Post” said Frederic Malek, chosen recently by Mr Bush as deputy chairman of the Republican National Committee, compiled figures in 1971 on the number of Jews among top officials of the Bureau of Labour Statistics.

According to the “Post,” Nixon had ordered Mr Malek to investigate what White House aides described as a “Jewish cabal” at the agency, a branch of the United States Labour Department.

Allegations of anti-Sem-itism became an issue for the Bush campaign last week when a Washington Jewish newspaper charged that several members of a Bush advisory committee on ethnic issues had past affiliations that appeared to be anti-Jewish.

On Thursday, the Bush campaign dismissed one member of the committee, Jerome Brentar, who had strongly defended a convicted Nazi war criminal, John Demjanjuk.

The “Post” said that Mr Malek, as Mr Nixon’s White House personnel chief, reported that 13 of 35 top officials of the bureau were Jewish. Less than two months later, two senior officials of the bureau, who were Jewish, were removed from their posts and moved to less visible posi-

tions in the agency, the newspaper said. The “Post” said the reasoning for the investigation was that Mr Nixon believed bureau officials were twisting unemployment data to put his administration in a bad light.

It said that when asked about his activities, Mr Malek said he studied the matter and found the bureau’s procedures were normal but that Mr Nixon persisted. Asked if he thought it appropriate for the Government to determine the religious affiliation of employees, Mr Malek told the “Post” he did not. “If the President of the United States asks you to get registration information (on political parties) that’s routine,” he said. “Anything else might be questionable. When you are in the White House

you get lots of directives that you don’t agree with.”

He said that Mr Nixon’s notions of a “Jewish cabal” were “ridiculous” and “nonsense.”

The Bush campaign had no comment.

In Boston, the Democratic Presidential candidate, Michael Dukakis, on Saturday attacked VicePresident George Bush for choosing three campaign aides who were hired by the Bahamas to defuse United States criticism of its drug policies.

Continuing to escalate his battle with the VicePresident, Mr Dukakis released copies of a memo from the consulting firm run by three key aides and said his own Government would not employ aides with “divided loyalties.” The aides run a Wash-

ington firm that was paid $BOO,OOO by the Bahamas to improve its standing in Washington — particularly with the Drug Enforcement Agency.

“In a Dukakis White House, there will be no back doors for foreign lobbyists,” Mr Dukakis told a news conference.

“There will be no opportunity for anyone to represent that they can lock our Government on a path that will head in the direction of another Government’s interest,” Mr Dukakis said in releasing a memo from the firm of Black, Manafort and Stone to the Government of the Bahamas.

Charles Black,. Paul Manafort and Roger Stone work as key advisers to the Republican campaign and Mr Stone was recently named co-chair-man of Mr Bush’s efforts in California.